


Happy Anniversary

by darcyalex



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Band Fic, Drama, Family, Found Family, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Reunion, Unsaid Emily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26677840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darcyalex/pseuds/darcyalex
Summary: Julie has been trying so hard to work out how to make the boys visible to others, but could an afternoon of Luke watching his parents hold the answer?
Comments: 23
Kudos: 357
Collections: Kelly's Picks, oh YES





	Happy Anniversary

“Maybe we need to put ourselves in danger?” Reggie said, breaking the silence that had lingered over the studio for longer than he was comfortable. “Last time, Julie thought we were all going to disappear forever. Maybe if she thinks that again, she can figure out how she did it before.”

Alex broke out of his blank stare to turn his head to Reggie. He stared at the bass player just long enough to give him time to really think about what he’d just said. When Reggie didn’t seem to get it, Alex said, “Seriously? We’ll just go back to the Hollywood Ghost Club and ask Caleb for another stamp, then, shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Reggie responded quietly, sagging back into his chair. He put a hand to his chest and started to rub it a little, remembering the pain of the jolts the stamp had caused. “But maybe there’s some other way to put us in danger.”

Then Alex turned his head to Julie and gave a look like he couldn’t answer another silly question and he needed her to take this one.

“You want to put a ghost in danger?” Julie asked Reggie skeptically.

Reggie went quiet when he saw her point.

Flynn looked between Julie and the seemingly empty chair she was talking to. “What’s going on?” she asked her best friend.

“Nothing helpful,” Luke said with a roll of his eyes.

Knowing Flynn hadn’t heard that, Julie—less sarcastically—answered, “Nothing that’s going to work.”

Julie and Luke had spent the last hour trying to get their hands to touch, but every time their hands got close, every time they thought, _maybe this time_ , their hands passed right through each other and the two would sigh. Julie could see Luke get more frustrated each time.

Ever since the night of The Orpheum show, the band had spent a lot of downtime trying to work out how to repeat whatever magic is was that had made Julie able to touch the boys, and Flynn able to see them.

Flynn hadn’t originally gone back to Julie’s after the show, but when she’d gotten home, she realized that Julie had seemed fine at the show, but there was no way she was going to be okay when she got home to the studio. So Flynn had gone straight down to the garage when she got to Julie’s and the first thing she noticed was how bright the room was. Then she saw Julie wasn’t alone, she could see the boys with her in a group hug.

“Oh, my god,” Flynn almost screamed when she realized what was happening. But no sooner had she spoken the words and Julie turned around, that the boys vanished.

Ever since that night, Julie had been trying to figure out how to make the boys visible when they weren’t playing—so far, she had only managed slight flickers as her hands passed through Luke’s. She hadn’t been able to touch him since.

Julie looked at Luke now, knowing he wanted just as bad as she did to recreate that magic. He wanted to hold her hand, feel her arms around him like he had that night.

He reached out again for her hand, only for his to slip right through it again. He gave a frustrated groan and turned away from her. He didn’t usually get like this—he actually hadn’t felt like this since he’d found out Bobby had stolen his music—but right now he wanted to hit something. He couldn’t remember being more frustrated with himself in all his life and afterlife.

Not sure what else to do, Luke stormed out through the garage door. Julie tried to call his name, but he kept going until he was outside.

Alex came and stood behind Julie, both looking at where the guitarist had walked out. After a quiet moment, Alex sighed. “So, do you wanna . . .?”

Snapping out of her own frustration, Julie said, “Yeah, yeah I got it.”

Julie walked outside to talk to Luke, and Alex was relieved he didn’t have to go. He’d been trying to support Luke through this, but he never seemed to know the right thing to say. Alex hated it, he was usually the one to know what to say to make things better, but he didn’t now. He didn’t understand what Luke was going through. He was still sneaking around with Willie, trying to work out how to free him from Caleb, but at least when Alex was able to steal a moment away with his dream boy, he could hold Willie in his arms.

Outside, Julie closed the garage door behind her. “Hey, you okay?”

Luke, who had begun throwing stones into the garden, frustrated, sighed and turned to look at her. “You know I want to be able to do this, right?”

“Of course, so do I,” Julie said softly. “But even if we don’t figure it out, it doesn’t change . . .”

“Change what?” Luke encouraged when she paused.

With a sigh, Julie only answered, “Nothing.”

Then Luke looked frustrated again. “Nothing,” he repeated. “Right.”

“No, Luke, that’s not what I—” but he poofed out before she could finish.

Reggie stuck his head through the garage door. “Where’s he going? We’ve got practice.”

He was yanked back inside by Alex. “We weren’t listening,” Alex lied after sticking his head through where Reggie’s had just been.

“It’s okay,” Julie answered. Still facing away from the boys, she wiped a tear from her face. “I think I know where he’s going.”

-

Emily was in the kitchen when Luke poofed in. She was drying the clean dishes to be put away and her hair was pulled back.

The first time Luke had seen her after coming back as a ghost, he was shocked by her now completely grey hair, but what hurt him the most was the look in her eyes. They were as sad as when he used to sneak by the house before he died, but they had an added layer of looking lost.

Now she looked . . . not happier, but definitely not as lost. Luke knew it was Julie who had done that. Bringing his mother that song had changed the whole mood in the house. A huge amount of his guilt had been lifted when Julie had come by, and now it seemed some of Emily’s had been, too.

“Good afternoon, my beautiful wife,” Mitch said, walking into the kitchen. Luke saw he was holding something behind his back and when Emily turned around to greet her husband, he pulled out the fresh bunch of dahlias. “Happy anniversary.”

“Oh, darling, they’re beautiful,” Emily said, taking the bouquet from him. “Happy anniversary.”

They shared an affectionate kiss and Luke smiled—forty-five years and despite all their tragedy, they were still so in love. Emily put the flowers in a vase with water and Mitch went to change from his golf clothes. Luke didn’t know, but their anniversary had been such a non-event since he’d died. But with new life in the house since Julie’s visit, Mitch felt compelled to acknowledge the day once again.

As he watched his mom continue to put away dishes, Luke looked past her to the window sill, and saw a folded up piece of paper tucked in the window tracks. She took that bit of paper everywhere with her now.

“I could really use some mom advice right now,” Luke said, sitting on the kitchen bench, leaning his back to the wall. “Julie is . . . incredible. She’s insanely talented, and caring. I don’t have to tell you that you’d like her. I love her, Mom, but I don’t know if I should tell her. I can’t touch her, I can’t hold her—or kiss her. I think she feels the same way I do, but is it fair to ask her for something so complicated? Should I encourage her to go for something normal and just let her be happy with Nick instead?” he said the name with spited jealously. “I don’t know if I could stick around for that.”

Emily continued to clean the kitchen and he wished so badly that she would respond and help him decide what to do. But after a moment, he knew he didn’t need her to.

“I know what you’d say,” Luke spoke with a little smile and shake of his head. “You’d ask me if writing and playing music with her was worth it. That if nothing ever changed, could I be happy with things the way they are?” After a quiet moment, he looked over at his mom. “And the answer is yes, it will always be yes. I’d go the rest of eternity never getting to hold her again, as long as I still got to write music and perform with her.”

Emily finished putting the dishes away and grabbed the coffee pot to fill with water.

“ _If you could only know, I never let you go_ ,” he sang quietly to her. But as he sang, he realized something new—his mother was singing along with him. Luke sat up straighter, thinking he must have imagined what he heard.

He tried again to be sure. “ _If I could take us back, if I could just do that_.” He wasn’t going crazy, she was singing the tune. Not only was she singing it to the right melody—a melody she’d never heard—but she was singing in time to him. When he stopped singing, she stopped and looked up, surprised to catch herself singing at all.

“ _And write in every empty space, the words I love you in replace_ ,” Luke kept going, hopping off the bench and walking up behind her as she put a now full pot of coffee on to brew.

She continued to sing with him and he looked at the piece of paper in the window sill with the _Unsaid Emily_ lyrics written on it, still in the same spot. He continued to sing with his mom as he reached over to grab the paper.

“ _And the words I most regret are the ones I never meant to leave _. . .” Her back was still turned when he tapped the paper out of its place and onto the bench.__

__Emily turned around to the light noise the bit of paper made when it landed. When she walked over to pick it up, Luke let out a breath, causing the paper to drop to the floor. Emily pulled her hand back, shocked. After she bent down to pick it up, she started to turn it in her hands, looking at it in curiosity._ _

__Luke wasn’t really sure how, but he knew that his mother knew he was there. He reached up a hand and brushed his fingertips on her cheek. Emily gasped lightly, and brought her hand to her cheek._ _

__Her eyes lit up with a joy he hadn’t seen before. Her hand went straight through his now, but for a moment, she could feel his touch._ _

__-_ _

__Luke poofed back into the studio to find it was only the boys. “Where’s Julie?” he asked immediately._ _

__“In her room, why?”_ _

__Without answering, Luke poofed into Julie’s room. She was on her bed studying and almost jumped off in fright._ _

__“Jeez, Luke,” she cried. “What are you doing? I could have been getting changed!”_ _

__He ignored her anger. “Julie, listen, the coolest thing just happened.”_ _

__Whatever happened at his parents’ house, he was so excited about it that Julie realized she couldn’t stay mad at him with that cute, eager look on his face. “Okay, what’s so important?”_ _

__Then there was a knock on the door and Julie’s dad interrupted them._ _

__“You okay, honey? Thought I heard a scream?” Ray asked, leaning through the doorway._ _

__“Oh, that,” Julie panicked for an answer. “Just homework frustration, you know? High school.”_ _

__Luke stood around impatiently, thinking Ray would leave after that, but then he walked into the room completely and sat on the chair across from Julie’s bed. Why did Ray have to choose this of all moments to have a catch up, bonding session?_ _

__When Ray finally walked out of the room what felt like an eternity later, Luke sat on Julie’s bed, ignoring the books and school work she had to move before he sat on them._ _

__“Okay, so I went to my mom and dad’s,” Luke began._ _

__Julie smiled sadly at him. “I figured as much.”_ _

__“No, listen, while I was there, I—” Before Luke could continue, they were interrupted again, this time by Reggie and Alex poofing in._ _

__“You guys need to come outside, right now,” Reggie said._ _

__Luke waved them off in annoyance. “Not now, guys, okay?”_ _

__“No, really, dude,” Alex said more seriously. “There’s someone here, you need to come out to the studio.”_ _

__Alex’s tone stopped Luke short of telling him off again. Who could be here that was so important? Julie got up off her bed and walked downstairs. The boys all followed her instead of poofing out._ _

__When they got to the studio, Luke couldn’t believe his eyes._ _

__-_ _

__Emily had caught herself singing all afternoon and wondered how she knew the music. After the folded up paper with her son’s handwriting all over it had fallen to the floor, she thought of Julie—the precious little girl who had brought her son back to her with that piece of paper._ _

__The first time Emily had read the lyrics, she realized that she hadn’t lost her son like she thought she had. She thought she’d lost him long before that devastating night the police lights had lit up her living room. But with Julie’s actions, she now knew that if not for the tragedy, she might one day have had him back, and that meant the world to her._ _

__Now she was singing to the lyrics she had only ever read. Maybe she’d heard the tune somewhere before. Then she got thinking about it. Perhaps Julie had performed the song before she knew what it was—or she might have even performed some of Luke’s other songs. After making herself a fresh coffee, Emily went to sit at the computer and searched for Julie._ _

__It took less than a minute for Emily to find the girl—once Emily found the right keywords, Julie and the Phantoms was the first hit._ _

__“ _Stand Tall_ at the Orpheum,” Emily muttered to herself. “Impressive.” Emily didn’t have to be a musician to know that a performance at the Orpheum was a pretty important event._ _

__“Hey, Mitch, honey,” she called to her husband. He came into the room with his own fresh cup of coffee._ _

__“Everything alright?” he asked._ _

__“Julie played the Orpheum a few weeks ago—I thought you might watch it with me.”_ _

__Emily didn’t have to say anything else—they were both thinking the same thing. They were going to support Julie as best they could, to make up for not supporting Luke when they had the chance._ _

__As they both watched the video start, Emily admired Julie’s beautiful speech. The young girl hadn’t mentioned that her mom had passed away, but Emily could tell now, by the way she spoke about her mom on stage, that Julie had suffered that same dreadful loss._ _

__When Julie started performing, Emily and Mitch both began to smile. She was so talented, just like Luke. Definitely not for the first time, Emily wished more than anything that she’d had the opportunity to see Luke perform. If he’d had half the spark and talent that Julie showed, she would have loved to watch him._ _

__Suddenly, Julie wasn’t alone on stage, a drummer and his kit seemed to flash in out of nowhere._ _

__Emily looked at Mitch in surprise. “That’s very fancy,” he noted. But then his eyebrows creased together as he looked closer at the monitor._ _

__Emily looked back herself and saw right away what her husband had. That drummer looked an awful lot like—_ _

__Another flash and another performer appeared on stage. “It can’t be,” Emily said._ _

__Mitch and Emily looked at each other, shocked, but also realizing the same thing—if that was Alex and Reggie, did that mean their son would be there too?_ _

__Both of them turned back to the monitor, their eyes glued as they watched another figure flash in and out. Emily couldn’t believe it, she must have imagined it. Then the figure flashed in again, still too quick to be sure, but enough that it gave her hope._ _

__Emily’s heart raced and Mitch put an arm around her—his heart had almost stopped._ _

__“ _I’m going out of my mind!_ ”_ _

__There he was._ _

__They watched the rest of the performance, completely speechless. Every second the camera showed Luke on screen, Emily’s heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t even questioning the how or the why, she was just so happy to see her son again._ _

__At the end of the video, Alex, Reggie and Luke flashed off screen the same way they’d flashed in and Mitch looked at his wife, who was still staring at the screen. She had tears in her eyes and he watched them start to roll down her cheek, then she looked at him._ _

__Without a word, Mitch went to grab his car keys and Emily followed him out to the car. Almost fifty years of loving her and she still didn’t have to say a word for him to know what she needed._ _

__They drove in silence as Mitch tried to remember where he was going. It had been over twenty-five years since he’d taken Luke to band practice, but he was sure he still remembered the way._ _

__When they arrived at the house they hadn’t seen in years, Mitch pulled up to curb out front and turned the car off. Emily didn’t move for a few moments._ _

__“Do you really think he’s here?” Emily asked, staring down where she could just see the roof of the garage. “What if . . .”_ _

__Mitch took her hand. “There’s only one way to know.”_ _

__They got out of the car and walked down the drive._ _

__The large white garage doors were closed, but Emily knew if the boys were anywhere, it was in there. So Mitch opened the door._ _

__The studio had definitely changed since he’d last seen it. A fresh coat of paint and a grand piano he was sure hadn’t been there the last time he’d dropped Luke off were the most notable changes. Mitch remembered the fights he’d gotten into with Luke every time he had come to pick his son up. That boy never wanted to leave._ _

__When Luke had first started practicing with his band, his parents never thought he would want to drop out of school to pursue music. They thought it would just be a high school hobby, and had always treated it as such. Mitch had thought many times over the years how different things might have been if they’d taken it half as seriously as Luke did._ _

__Alex and Reggie sat up, stiff as boards when they saw who had walked into the garage. They looked at each other, staying completely quiet, as if Emily and Mitch could hear them anyway. Not sure what else to do, they poofed up to Julie’s room._ _

__There was no one in the garage when they walked in, but that didn’t stop Emily from saying through tears, “Luke?”_ _

__When nothing happened, Emily thought about going up to the house to look for Julie. Then she heard someone walk in and turned around._ _

__Alex and Reggie stayed just outside when Julie walked in with Luke at her heels — they both froze at the sight of his parents._ _

__Luke took a step and stood directly beside Julie. They instinctively grabbed hands, so caught up in the shock of who was in front of them, they didn’t even notice that they were actually _holding hands_._ _

__“Mom?” Luke said, tears in his eyes._ _

__Emily gasped and put a hand to her mouth. She was looking at him— _at him_. “Luke?” she said with a sob._ _

__Luke and Julie looked at her in shock, then down at their interlocked hands, then back to Emily._ _

___Family_ , Julie realized. That feeling of family was all she was thinking of in that moment. How much her family—including her found one—meant to her, how much she loved them, how much Luke loved his._ _

__Emily walked over towards her son, tears streaming. She still didn’t care how—she just wanted to know it was real. She reached out and touched his arm, and she could feel it. He really was there._ _

__“Mom, I—”_ _

__Luke was cut off when his mother wrapped her arms around him, crying with overwhelming emotion. He wrapped his other arm around her, not daring to let go of Julie’s hand in case the magic went away. Julie wiped away tears and Emily pulled her in as well. Mitch walked over and wrapped himself around all of them. Emily’s legs gave out then as all her energy had been taken by her tears. Luke carried her down until they were on their knees._ _

__Then he felt Alex and Reggie join them. Emily looked at them, so happy to see her son’s chosen family here as well._ _

___My beautiful boy_ , Emily thought. _Oh, how I’ve missed you.__ _

__Even if the magic never worked again, Luke would never be able to repay Julie for this moment. She was his shining star, his savior—and he would love her forever. In that moment, surrounded by all of his family, Luke had never felt so at peace._ _

**Author's Note:**

> If you found this after seeing it on Tumblr, thank you for the love, if not, you can follow me at raiseyourvoicetotherain 
> 
> And thank you to kieranofunseelie on tumblr for post that inspired this fic.


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